The Forgotten Woman
by Elphaba-TheDefiant
Summary: After an encounter with a Dracorex gone bad, Jenny finds herself somewhere she'd only ever heard about. And it would either be the death of her or the best thing that's ever happened to her.


Jenny hated this job. She wasn't even lying anymore. The anomalies? Fine. The creature incursions? She could deal. But when they wanted to make her bait? That's where she drew the line. Although, she went along with it anyway because what else could she do? She was stuck in an airport with a dracorex and a lunatic team. Plus, she had broken a heel and that had been her favourite pair. So now they lay somewhere in the destroyed duty free section as she ran for her life.

The roaring in her ears could have been blood rushing to her head or the creature pursuing her, she couldn't be certain. Either way, her lungs were beginning to burn as she led the creature back to the anomaly, hoping to lure it through. The creature pelted after her as she hurtled towards the anomaly, dodging around a metal detector. She flinched as the dracorex leapt over it, landing behind her...a lot closer than she was strictly comfortable with. She drew closer and suddenly dove to the left, hoping to clear it. No such luck. A sharp impact knocked the wind out of her and then she was falling. The last thing she remembers from that world is hearing the team crying her name as the anomaly flickered, closing as she fell.

The noise was the first thing that alerted Jenny to her strange surroundings. She knew she wasn't exactly the leading specialist on ancient time periods but she was pretty sure that she wouldn't be hearing the chatter of human speech when she was meant to be in the Cretaceous. Then her ears picked up three words that she knew way too well for her liking - "Fire at will". So, for the second time that day, Jenny hit the floor, flattening herself against the ground and praying the bullets wouldn't hit her. She screamed as one grazed her thigh, leaving a long, thin wound. The dinosaur hit the ground a few seconds later, its glassy eyes staring at Jenny accusingly. She shuddered but thankfully, she didn't have to look at it for long as two strong hands had gripped her upper arms and pulled her to her feet.

"Steady on there, that was quite a knock you took there." A familiar Scottish voice said from behind her.  
"Cutter?" Jenny asked in surprise.  
"Who's Cutter?" The man replied as Jenny turned to face him, a look of confusion still marring her features.  
"You are." She retorted, raising her eyebrows and giving him her patented 'stop being an idiot' look.  
"Claudia? What the hell were you doing?" Not-Cutter asked her, eyes wide as he saw her features for the first time.  
"Oh for god's sake! I came through an anomaly and I'm still getting called that!" Jenny hissed. She was sore, tired, trapped here and all she wanted was to be home with a hot bath and a decent novel.  
"Claudia, I thought you had let this Cutter thing go. There is no Cutter." The man said firmly with the tone of someone who had been through all this before.  
Jenny took a measured breath and spoke slowly. "My name is Jennifer Lewis. And please, stop this, Cutter. It's not funny anymore." Jenny huffed.  
"There is no Cutter! My name is Rick Curtis, you're Claudia Brown and you work with Stuart Hartford, Ali Maidwell and Conrad Tempest. Remember?" 'Rick' insisted.  
Jenny slumped. This must have been how Cutter felt when Claudia Brown disappeared...something must have been changed because none of this was right. "Can I please just get this bullet wound looked at?" She asked evenly.  
Rick sighed and waved a medic over to look at the small wound on her thigh.

Jenny had literally just gotten the wound stitched up when another woman exactly her height came rushing in, her light auburn hair flying around her. "Heard someone came through the anomaly. What's going o-oh!" The woman finally looked up at Jenny.  
"It's you. You're her...Claudia." Jenny murmured.  
"Yes...and who are you?" Claudia asked, staring into the face of her doppelgänger.  
"Oh my God, it's true. Cutter wasn't delusional." Jenny said softly, ignoring Claudia's question.  
"Cutter? He's still alive?" Claudia asked, hope lighting her features.  
Jenny automatically found herself adopting the same expression - they looked so similar that she felt their faces should match. "Last time I checked, yes." She whispered, distracted by examining Claudia's features.  
"He's right. We're exactly the same. Although, I'm not fond of the hair colour." Jenny mused.  
"Likewise!" Claudia bristled.  
And then they locked gazes and the ridiculousness of the situation hit them. So they began to laugh, eyes crinkling in an identical manner. After they had finished laughing at the completely mad situation, they looked at each other – looking for some sort of difference that might set them apart, aside from their hair colours of course. They saw none...none at all.  
"This is so weird..." Claudia murmured, watching Jenny curiously.  
"I know." Jenny breathed. "What happened to you?"  
"I don't know...I think...well I've been here a while and I've been thinking. I think it's a parallel timeline or something."  
"He...Cutter, he's not forgotten you. Sometimes he still slips up and calls me Claudia." Jenny admitted.  
"That's a relief, I guess." Claudia said with a soft smile, an expression that Jenny herself had never worn, to the best of her recollection.  
"Yeah. Tough act to live up to, you are." Jenny teased faintly.  
"Oh...I'm sorry. He wasn't...he didn't judge you on it or anything?"  
"Of course he did. It's alright though." Jenny shrugged lightly.

Claudia was about to respond when she was cut off by a man's voice from the woods. His steps were clearly audible and approaching quickly. Jenny's head snapped up as Lester's double stepped into the clearing.

"What the hell is going on here?" He asked.  
"We're not sure Jonathan." Claudia replied smoothly.  
"Alright, well, I don't know what's going on here and frankly, I don't care. Take her away until we decide what to do."  
"What?!" Jenny snapped.  
"Jonathan!" Claudia reproached harshly.  
"What?" He shrugged carelessly.  
Claudia just gritted her teeth.

She fell silent, knowing that fighting with him would be no use. So Claudia stood back and watched her only link to Nick Cutter be dragged away from her.


End file.
